The plant, which serves as back-up to the state’s renewable generating technologies, was also denied a reliability charge by the state that would have allowed it to continue to operate.

The owners project an annual loss of $39 million without a reliability contract or other support. In its bankruptcy filing, the plant owners listed assets of between $100 million and $500 million and liabilities of $500 million to $1 billion.[i] La Paloma is a 1200-megawatt merchant plant located 110 miles northwest of Los Angeles and is able to serve both the San Francisco and Los Angeles markets.

An estimate by the British Geological Survey found in 2013 that Central
Britain, which includes the prospective Bowland basin, could hold
between 822 and 2,281 Tcf (23.3-64.6 Tcm) of gas-in-place, the lower
figure representing P90 reserves -- a 90% probability -- and the higher
figure P10 reserves -- a 10% probability. Although these figures are
huge in comparison with the UK's proved conventional gas reserves, which
at end-2016 were just 7.3 Tcf, they do not represent recoverable gas.

There was an 18-month-period, from late 1968 through mid-1970 that
clearly had some of the best music ever.

This was the year of
Woodstock.

The Beatles were still going strong, but touring less, and
would soon stop completely.

Led Zeppelin's first two albums, Zeppelin I and Zeppelin II,
were released in 1969.

The era of "free love" and the uncertainties of
the Vietnam War probably contributed to some of this really incredible
music. Speaking of the Vietnam war, I turned 18 in 1969. My lottery
draft was July 1, 1970; my lottery number was 103. The highest lottery
number called for this group was 125; all men assigned that lottery
number or any lower number, and who were classified as available for
military service, were called to report for possible induction. I would
have been deferred by virtue of being enrolled in college. I was worried
that I would be called up before I graduated from college. I was
convinced, but wrong, that the war would still be going on when I
graduated from college.

Close but no cigar (source): gasoline demand came close to beating last year's record demand, but didn't quite do it. It will be interesting to see how gasoline demand is affected by the "great migration" on/about August 21, 2017. They say this will be the greatest one-week migration in the history of the US.

More smoke and mirrors coming out of the Mideast: from ArgusMedia-- "Iraq output drop likely reflects methodology shift."

Iraqi field-level production
data appears to show it has deepened crude output cuts, but methodology
changes are the more likely explanation. And data from international oil
firms show output from the semiautonomous Kurdistan region to be much
higher than the federal government's estimate.

Baghdad is facing
pressure to improve its compliance with the production deal struck
between Opec and several non-Opec countries. Argus estimates
Iraqi output has been 4.45mn b/d so far this year, making it just over
50pc compliant, compared with Opec's overall 101pc compliance rate. Iraq
agreed to cut output by 210,000 b/d from an October 2016 baseline
figure determined by secondary sources, including Argus, to
4.35mn b/d until March next year. Production data from the federal
government in Baghdad put output at 4.54mn b/d this year.

Iraq's
low compliance led to an appearance before a joint ministerial
monitoring committee meeting earlier this month to discuss its future
production plans. Saudi Arabia's oil minister Khalid al-Falih made comments
after a meeting with his Iraqi counterpart Jabbar al-Luaibi on 8 August
that could be interpreted as a public hint that Iraq needs to improve
its compliance.

Iraq's production published two days later in Opec's latest Monthly Oil Market Report
(MOMR) showed output at 4.4mn b/d in July, down by 150,000 b/d from
June. A regional breakdown for July, provided by the oil ministry, shows
a decline of 374,000 b/d when compared with the previously-published
breakdown for September 2016, before the Opec agreement. The biggest
fall comes from state-owned North Oil, (NOC) followed by the Kurdistan
region (see table).

An explanation for the large drop from
NOC could be a methodology change. The ministry's September figure for
NOC included production from Bai Hassan and Avanah Dome, in Kirkuk, even
though these fields were taken over by the KRG in 2014 to prevent them
falling to Islamist group Isis. Production from the two fields totalled
275,000 b/d in September last year.

Data from the Kurdistan
Regional Government (KRG) placed the region's output at just over
560,000 b/d for the same month in 2016, similar to the federal
government's estimate but including production from Bai Hassan and
Avanah Dome.

Husky produces primarily heavy oil from oil sands and conventional
operations in western Canada and the deal will help it manage exposure
to depressed global crude prices, which are hovering below $50 a barrel
on concerns about a persistent supply glut CLc1.

Husky said it would retain about 180 workers at the refinery, which can
process Canadian heavy crude and light and medium barrels from Canada
and the Bakken region, and also boosts the company's asphalt production
capacity.

Disbanding the president's "strategy" and "economic" councils. Catching a bit of CNBC this morning suggests that disbanding the councils may have been the smartest thing Trump ever did. LOL. A lot of mainstream America saw 20 "fat cats" sitting around the table talking to the president about cutting their taxes. Most of the CEOs seemed to have nothing in common with Trump except making money: they seemed to disagree with him on immigration, climate change, healthcare, trade with China, etc. This now leaves Trump listening to his "own" people and not getting advice from social liberals, like Tim Cook, et al. Big winner? Bannon? I don't know, but the question is being raised.

proceeds will be used mainly to fund the company's shareholder return program (dividends and stock buybacks)

Jobs: the jobs data posted yesterday was in error. Weekly jobs data will be posted today. A comment to that post would be lost so I've re-posted that but it will show coming from me: it did not. It came from a reader. Jobs report:

last week's number unrevised, at 244,000

this week, a huge drop: down 12,000 to 232,000

Deplorables: word on the street -- "if deplorables no longer shop at Wal-Mart, it won't matter." This follows reports that the Wal-Mart CEO is really, really angry with President Trump. Wal-Mart shares down over 2% in pre-market trading and pulling the overall market down.

The stars may finally be aligning for two related crude oil
infrastructure projects that, if undertaken, would provide an important
new pathway to overseas markets for Bakken, western Canadian and other
North American crude. The first would involve reversing the Capline
Pipeline, which was built to transport crude north from the U.S. Gulf
Coast to Midwest refiners.

The second would make modest physical changes
to the Louisiana Offshore Oil Port — better known as LOOP — to allow
the crude import facility off the Bayou State coast to load crude onto
ships, including Very Large Crude Carriers (VLCCs). Today we look at
the new infrastructure and market forces that may finally spur Capline’s
reversal and lead imports-focused LOOP to enable exports.

Wednesday, August 16, 2017

When you get to the link, scroll down, to where it says "click to begin."

And click on it.

Then where it says "enter a location or a zip code," enter a location or your zip code or your friend's zip code or the zip code of your significant other if geographically separated or the zip code of Senator Chuck Schumer or the zip code of your mother-in-law or any other zip code.